Their most exciting prospect is 22-year old Kashvee Gautam,  who was the most expensive uncapped player of the WPL and has Harmanpreet’s name on her wickets’ list. She was the joint-leading bowler among Indian players at the WPL with 11 to her tally (along with Shikha Pandey, who has not played an international in two years) and had best economy rate among Indian bowlers (and second best overall) and her international call-up is as deserved as it is expectant.

There was no such reward for the leading Indian run-scorer at the WPL. Shafali Verma scored two runs more than Harmanpreet and was fourth-highest overall but cannot find a spot in a squad that includes Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh. While India’s batting looks strong and familiar, their bowling reserves could be tested as all of Renuka Singh, Titas Sadhu and Pooja Vastrakar are injured which will leave it to Arundhati Reddy to lead the pace attack. Left-arm spinners N Shree Charani and Shuchi Upadhyay are the two others who could have their first international outing. Upadhyay was the third-highest wicket-taker in the domestic women’s one-day trophy last year.

Sri Lanka are back at the ODI World Cup after missing out on the 2022 edition and secured automatic qualification when they finished fifth in the Women’s Championship, ahead of New Zealand, but there’s work to be done to have a good tournament showing. Sri Lanka have lost their last two series – to Ireland and New Zealand – and will want to find form ahead of the World Cup, especially as they are not scheduled to play any other matches between now and the start of the tournament.

They’ve rung in the changes for this series, with six from the last squad, and included four uncapped players as well. Thirty-nine-year-old left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera is back in a squad that will be headlined by a strong spin contingent, including Malki Madara, who may get her first game. There are three other spinners in Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani and Kavisha Dilhari, which has left space for only two seamers. Achini Kulasuriya is one of them and 18-year-old allrounder Rasmika Sewwandi, who was part of the Under-19 squad, is the other.

Sri Lanka’s batting is well-settled and the challenge will be for them to continue finding contributions from sources other than Chamari Athapaththu, who will doubtless be key to their World Cup campaign, but has stressed the need for the load to be shared. Slowly, that’s started to happen. Harshita Samarawickrama and Vishmi Gunaratne both scored hundreds in the last year and became the only Sri Lankan batters other than Athapaththu to do so. Sri Lanka will want to see more names on that list soon.

Before South Africa can start thinking about whether this World Cup could be the one where they take one more step than usual to get to the trophy, they have to find their feet under a new(ish) coach Mandla Mashimbyi, who has enjoyed title-winning success with the Titans provincial team but had no prior experience in women’s cricket, was appointed late last year and oversaw part of the home series against England (which went badly as South Africa won only one match out of seven across formats), but this will be his first proper test.

He will take it without senior allrounder Marizanne Kapp, who is being rested as she manages her workload, or batter Anneke Bosch, who is injured, but has the core of the squad that reached the T20 World Cup final at his disposal. That includes legspinner Seshnie Naidu, who did not get a game in the UAE but may play a big role alongside Nonkululekho Mlaba in future visits to the subcontinent.

Wicketkeeper-batter Karabo Meso, who was key to South Africa’s run to the Under-19 World Cup final, is the talk of the town on the domestic circuit and could bring depth to a batting line-up that will have an in-form Sune Luus (third on the domestic run-scorers charts) and the experience of Laura Wolvaardt, Nadine de Klerk and Chloe Tryon to lean on. South Africa have also gone light on seamers with Masabata Klaas and allrounders Annerie Dercksen and de Klerk to share duties as they aim to give their spinners a solid run. South Africa will also travel to West Indies and Pakistan before the World Cup.

Brought in in place of Rachin Ravindra, Brevis immediately looked a notch above the other batters in the match. Even as the placeholder No. 4 Ravindra Jadeja struggled to get any fluency, Brevis took down Kamindu, who had bowled the first two overs for no boundaries and took the wicket of Jadeja. On a dry pitch with enough grip in it, Kamindu made no mistake but Brevis still hit three sixes in his one over, the 12th. He then cut a slower bouncer from Harshal for a six off extra cover.

This is when Brevis looked to hit a second six off Harshal. The ball was in the slot too. He got a good part of it but not quite the elevation. Kamindu, however, was too far in off the long-off fence, so it looked like he would be beaten but he flew to his left, went with two hands at this missile, and came up with the ball in his right hand.

After Brevis’ wicket, SRH turned the screws right in. Cummins bowled overs 16 and 18 for no boundary, hitting a Test-match hard length and beating the bat with some away movement. SRH kept chipping at the wickets, including M S Dhoni caressing Harshal to backward point. There was no finishing kick.

If Shami took a wicket first ball, Khaleel Ahmed took one second ball, reaching eight powerplay wickets this IPL, joint highest along with Mohammed Siraj. Anshul Kamboj, preferred to R Ashwin for this match, then bowled successfully to a difficult plan: a 6-3 off-side field with two mid-offs. He had Travis Head repeatedly playing across the line to straight balls, hitting the pad twice and then the top of off.

Ishan Kishan fought his way past 17 for the first time since the hundred in SRH’s first match, but it was an innings that hovered around a run a ball for a long time. Heinrich Klassen, promoted ahead of Nitish Kumar Reddy who would eventually bat at No. 7, felt obliged to take a risk and got out to Jadeja to make it 54 for 3 in 8.1 overs.